"Let the Frogs Keep their Legs" sticker (Box 11, Folder 25)
Bernard Unti Book and Ephemera Collection on Animal Studies Now Available
October 31, 2022
This post contributed by Laura Lethers.
NC State University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce that the collection guide for the Bernard Unti Book and Ephemera Collection on Animal Studies is now available online. The SCRC is excited to provide access to another collection of materials focused on animal rights and welfare.
Bernard Unti, Ph.D., is an animal rights and welfare advocate who worked for the Animal Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) from 1985 to 1992 and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) beginning in 2004. He is the author of Protecting All Animals: A Fifty-Year History of The Humane Society of the United States (2004) and a number of essays on cruelty to animals as a historical and contemporary issue.
The collection includes books and ephemera collected by Dr. Unti throughout his career of advocacy and dates from the mid 1800s to the present day. Included among the ephemera are historical advertisements, journals, postcards, pamphlets, and magazines relating to animals. A few of the topics included in the collection are humane education, the history of the animal rights movement, world war memorabilia, animals used in laboratory experiments, animal control, and vegetarianism.
A few of the materials that document the early stages of the animal rights movement include publications for the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the precursor to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and early reports of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Other local, state, and national societies are also represented, among them the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the American Humane Association, and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
There are cookbooks and informational pamphlets on vegetarianism and veganism, including The American Vegetarian and Health Journal, as well as stickers, flyers, and brochures in defense of both animals and meatless diets.
Some of the materials document entities that are traditionally held in opposition to the animal welfare movement, such as advertisements for meat packing companies, butchers, stock yards, and statements for purchases from saddlery hardware stores for carriage pulling.
Other collections that include these topics and others related to animal rights and welfare available for research at Special Collections include the Bernard Unti Papers (MC 00513), the Animal Welfare Institute Records (MC 00344), the Tom Regan Papers (MC 00236), and the Doris Day Animal League Records (MC 00651), among others. Another related collection is the recently processed Humane Society of the United States Records (MC 00674).
To learn more about animal rights and welfare collections at NC State University, visit our online collections guide webpage. Additionally, the Special Collections Digital Collections website contains many images and videos related to animal rights online.
If you have any questions or are interested in this collection, or any related collections, please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu or submit a request online.
The Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only. Appointments are available Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm and Saturday, 1pm–5pm. Requests for a Saturday appointment must be received no later than Tuesday of the same week.